Clue in flour leads to arrest of Port St. Lucie man suspected in Spanish Lakes burglary

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Shoe prints in flour spilled on a kitchen floor led deputies to arrest a 29-year-old man in connection with a burglary in the Spanish Lakes community east of U.S. 1 where between 60 and 70 burglaries have been reported in recent weeks.

Bryan Lee Keller, of the 500 block of Northwest Kilpatrick Avenue in Port St. Lucie, was arrested Oct. 12 on burglary and grand theft charges after a burglary four days earlier on Del Prado Avenue, according to records obtained Tuesday.

In that burglary, sheriff's officials found the shoe prints in the flour matched Keller's shoes.

A St. Lucie County sheriff's deputy stopped Keller in a Mercedes-Benz on Prima Vista Boulevard. The car was traveling at a high rate of speed, changed lanes without signaling and had expired tags. Keller, whose license was suspended, said the car belonged to a friend.

"Hey, those TVs are not stolen, they're not stolen," Keller is quoted as saying about televisions in the trunk. "I'm just driving down to West Palm Beach to pawn them to get my buddy out of jail, but they're not stolen."

Sheriff's officials are trying to determine who owns those televisions.

Several of the homes burglarized in Spanish Lakes had windows pried open and screens cut, an affidavit states. In most of the incidents, flat-screen TVs and jewelry were taken.

Sheriff's officials working on the burglaries developed "a list of a few suspects," which included Keller and a second man, an affidavit states.

That second man "had a long list of suspicious pawns in Palm Beach County." One of the pawns included a TV stolen from Spanish Lakes.

Keller told sheriff's officials he was staying with that man in the Spanish Lakes community. That man hasn't been arrested in connection with any of the Spanish Lakes burglaries, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Keller was held Tuesday in the St. Lucie County jail in lieu of $19,500 bail, a jail official said.